Week 11 Reading Notes: The Jataka Tales of India Part B

 

Bhutanese painted a thanka of the Jataka Tales (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The Wise and The Stupid Marchant:

What can be interesting is to write from the demon's point of view and find out why it is doing all this. There must be a more specific reason. What I understand from the text is that he "kills" the merchants just for envy and pleasure. 

The Queen in the “Princes and the Water-Sprite” is not mentioned for a long time, so writing about her could be interesting. For example, a story where she explains her evil plan and why she wants her younger son to rule the kingdom. It reminds me a little bit of Shrek where the fairy absolutely wants her son to reign and marry Fiona. Or other fairy tales where there is an evil queen who wants to harm the princess' life. 

Or revisit the story: the first two sons could be the children of the king and another queen who died because of an accident or because of the evil queen. Therefore, the evil queen becomes the king's second wife and gives birth to the third son. The three brothers get along wonderfully but the evil queen does everything to make her son hate his brothers as well as his father. But the prince is too pure and innocent to hate them, which enrages the queen. She will ask the water sprite for help to kill the other two princes because they are out hunting between brothers. This could become a fairy tale. 

Bibliography: The Jataka Tales of India by Ellen C. Babbitt